July 19, 2010

Heya I’m back after more than 10 days. Actually this post title might be a bit misleading, but let’s get to that later. I’ve been spending my time recently between some games, 2 dramas and the usual net surfing. The World Cup has already long passed so I guess I don’t need to talk about it too much now. On account of Germany’s showing, I do hope they can scale even greater heights 4 years from now when the aspiring young players start to mature.

Right, what now. Actually I had spent quite some time on Football Manager 2010 due to the fervor brought on by the WC. I decided to pick up a puny team, Crewe, and managed to bring them to the Barclays Premier League in a couple of years. But it starts to get very irritating when all the big clubs start circling around my players like how eagles hunt for their preys. It just gets more difficult when suddenly all my best players are eager to leave for greener pastures. Boo, I shall put it away for now and stop the game. I dunno, perhaps the WC fever had died off. Argentina won Brazil 2014 in my simulation.

Went out last Saturday with my uni clique to celebrate Min Yao’s birthday, which he amazingly and alarmingly forgot about. Had some good Dim Sum at Crystal Jade. Thankfully didn’t order too much food. The girls ate super little and its up to me and Gary to save the day again. We spent a little just over $97 on the meal, for 7 person, which is a reasonable price, but again, the girls didn’t eat much. My very pathetic and lousy estimate says that we ordered over 20 笼/plates (its this long right?) of food. I like the chestnut cake lah, rocks much more than the carrot cake. But alot of ppl never eat before and didn’t try it. I do admit at first sight the colour doesn’t look too appealing. But oh well, it rocks.

Now finally, what is this post title about. Nope I don’t have any dreams to share over here. Rather is has to do with Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Erm I’m currently watching the latest adaptation, once again a China production, of this epic novel / Chinese classic. I kind of already know the entire outline of the plot, though not in as much detail as I wished. So knowing the epic feats that some epic characters will perform, its kind of the longing to embrace their heroic dreams again. Certainly I still learnt alot from this new drama, more detailed about the plot, and maybe some characters. This actually has pretty impressive war and duel scenes where people do not actually seem redundant. You know, alot of fighting scenes in subpar shows where multiple fighters engage in a battle, there are bound to be some wonderful jumping around in the background by some of the fighters while they wait for their turn to be pummeled. I always find that amusing. But so far, I don’t think I’ve seen any of this retarded act now. War is brutal, war is serious, the soldiers fight, for their lives, and honour. No stupid jumping around. And the 1-vs-many duels are always nice to see.

July 8, 2010

July is here! hahahaha. And with it comes quite a number of new stuffs for me. Lets talk about the usual stuff first. Even if you are not an avid fan, you should know that world cup fever is still on. And now that it is going into the final stages, the matches are typically more exciting, though Spain-Paraguay turns out to be pretty crap. Has enjoyed Germany the most, though Paul the Octopus gave an unnerving warning recently.

The big big thing going on from this month onwards is the restructured public transport fare scheme! Been hearing complaints, from the same group of ppl, coz these are the ones that usually talk to me online on a daily basis. Seems like generally, most of our trips become more expensive, and some by a huge percentage spike. Since it is distance based now, those of us using bus trips on the expressways, welcome aboard, we are pwned! I do believe that bus hopping is a reasonable move now for those without concessions if the buses travel along same routes, since the total fare should be the same.

There are only a few places I travel frequently to, and so far I have only spotted 1 trip to be less expensive. And that is to my university, by a mighty 1 cent! I would probably use concession during school terms, but for the sake of illustration, here is an example. My previous route would be to take a certain bus 1 stop before an interchange, and transfer to another bus opposite a certain educational institution, dropping at my school. This move would cost $1.30, and under the new scheme cost $1.33! So where is the 1 cent saving I talked about? Fret not! The power of cost reduction now lies in bus-train transfers, or train-bus transfers, whatever. So at the very start of the journey, I can replace 2 bus stops with 1 LRT stop, and then hop onto my so called first bus, and follow the same routine. That move would have cost me $1.48 previously, but now it stands just at $1.29! See where this is heading? Cross-mode transports ftw.

Now for another convincing example. Yesterday I made a visit to my friend’s home. Here’s the deal. Typically, I would have walked 2 bus stops distance to reach one that has the direct service to his home. That used to cost $1.31, now $1.29. My alternative routes now would be to take a service for 2 bus stops to that bus stop for transfer, old price $1.50, now $1.29! Practically free. The new system presents many opportunities for us to try to salvage the usually increased cost, by coming up with some perhaps weird routes that never came to our mind before, coz those might seem to be expensive. But now hopping is the way forward.

Well, as stated above, I went to my friend’s home. And that is the first time I touched a ps3. So suaku! Me and ken were getting our asses royally owned by jh in ssf4, but I did manage to rake up some wins! Good considering I never played vs games for probably a decade. We also tried GT5 prologue, and of course it wasn’t easy. Again, experience proved to be priceless as jh once again owned us. I may not be the best person to execute flawless driving moves, but generally I am much more aware of quirky shortcuts and possible tools to gain an advantage in games. Me ftw! Finally we looked at the system for ff13. As I don’t own any high end consoles, I must say the graphics and audio are pretty solid, and the battles are fast paced and nifty. Looks like something I would play if I had my own. One thing bothers me though, the Eidolons, more commonly known as Summons, put me in quite a surprise. Probably has something to do with the context of the story, which also makes it that 1 person only has 1 Eidolon… they look… weird. I think it destroys the very essence of those spiritual entities. The Eidolons become more like Transformers… Weird, just weird.

Finally, dom joined us for dinner at Din Tai Feng. Had some xiao long bao, shrimp dumplings, sliced beef, and a main for each of us, which I chose some pork ribs noodles. The food is pretty savory, but of course we are not willing to part with too much $$$, so that was it, not full. We walked around aimlessly for quite some time before going in to Mac for ice cream and some sides. The 4 of us played World Combat in zone-x for some casual fun, with only 1 credit each. Amazingly, amazingly I tell you, it played out kind of in reverse for us. Our real-life sergeant was the first guy to lose all his lives in the game. Dadah… The second guy to die is the one who barely passed his range (live shooting – rifle lah) in the army. Dadah… The next person to KO is the guy who has had serious arm injury problems, and is excused from rifle in the army. Dadah… Amazingly, amazingly I tell you, our last survivor goes to da dom, the PES E elite administrative staff in the army who has no need ever to go outfield or handle weapons. Dadah… What a surprise.

I have not watched any drama since the last update! Oh nos… better start soon after the world cup. Though, I did managed to set aside some time for movies outside of my football manager campaign. The Green Mile is exceptionally thought-provoking and well… remarkable.

Disclaimer

Everything written in this blog is my and only my opinions on all sorts of stuff in my life. I do not presume them to be facts and you should not take for granted what I wrote as the undeniable truths.

No. of Lost Souls

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The Mirror of Truth

Just another insignificant speck of dust amidst the universe searching for a greater purpose in life. Currently in the hunt.